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Tie Me To The Length Of That

“My aunt told me, “I remember the day you were born; your father turned up drunk at the hospital and dropped you onto the bed.” I remembered that. I thought, “That’ll make a song.” Tell it that way from the child’s point of view: a bad baby point of view. That’s a bad baby doing that song and it’s excellent. It’s a sense of fun. It’s closer to some psychotic comedy film.”John Lydon (214)

Rise

“This came from the South African torture victims. That said, I always consider both sides of the argument, hence the lyric “I could be wrong, I could be right”.”John Lydon (215)

Disappointed

“It’s about friendship and learning how to forgive. It’s about forgiving myself really. It’s very self-analysis, that one.”John Lydon (216)

Acid Drops

“Is about censorship. I like every word in that song; the refrain of no future in the end which is all about censorship. And the censorship that “God Save The Queen” went through and all that nonsense I thought was very appropriate.”John Lydon (217)

Warrior

“Performing “Warrior” live, the song becomes bigger and wider. It’s about standing up and fighting for what’s rightfully yours and don’t roll over. Basically, it’s a rebel song. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re rebelling against, but rebel first and work the rest out later because at least your mind is occupied. It’s an anti-war song. I was thinking of Sitting Bull, a Native American point of view: because they didn’t stand up and take no quarter they were basically massacred. Every time they tried to make a peace treaty it meant more of them would be murdered; the disenfranchised.”John Lydon (218)

Double Trouble

“Well, the inspiration came from something Lu [Edmonds, PiL’s guitarist – Ed] was playing and I really fell in love with – this beautiful little angry sort of pattern. And it matched perfectly, the scenario of a row that my wife and I had over the repair of a toilet. So I wanted to accurately portray how a domestic issue can be blown out of all proportion, but it can also be resolved – i.e., we got a plumber in, rather than an analyst. So it’s a happy song, because you find the resolve.”John Lydon (1056)

Know Now

“Well, that’s me trying to be as minimal as I can, using the least amount of words with the most poignant of ambitions. That’s speaking directly: I don’t want to know that. If you’re going to lie to me, I don’t want to know you. That’s not aimed at anyone internally, because there are no liars in PiL, there’s none in my domestic life, there’s none in my family life. But when we come across “outsiders,” shall we say, or the world in general, it’s just full of snakes in the grass. And it’s our kind of refreshing flag waving: Don’t come near us. We don’t want you. We do not want to know you if that’s the way you continue to be. So clean up your act, because we’re getting back into the Garden of Eden.”John Lydon (1056)

I’m Not Satisfied

“About losing my memories when I was a child, from coming out of a coma from meningitis. And I wasn’t satisfied – I knew I must have belonged to someone, somehow, somewhere. I just didn’t know who, how, or why. And that stuck with me ever since.”John Lydon (1056)

This Is Not A Love Song

“That’s a poignant dig at the business aspects that I’ve been forced into having to use during my life of music. You can’t get by without lawyers and accountants, and there it is – such is the world of snakes in the grass. When you run into nonsenses, well, you just get yourself a bigger snake. It’s also a song that is anti-corporate greed, and that’s a theme that’s going to keep occurring in my life, because I don’t like the way the big business considers itself very wise, when in fact, it’s not. It’s a headless chicken of greed and selfishness and all of the things that make life for the rest of us unbearable.”John Lydon (1056)